


Contempt

by Lyn_Laine



Series: A Matter of Time [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 20:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12566052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyn_Laine/pseuds/Lyn_Laine
Summary: Severus Snape is a student in the Golden Trio's era instead of in the Marauders'.  He still doesn't like Harry Potter.  One-shot.





	Contempt

It starts out as contempt.

Severus Snape has no personal connection to Harry Potter in the beginning, but that doesn’t mean he has to like him. Harry Potter is a self righteous Gryffindor with a gigantic head who everyone loves, who always get exactly what he wants, admiring boys and girls alike in the sexually open wizarding world.

Just for this, Severus despises him. He despises people who seem to have it all.

Two things start to change his mind. The first comes when he sees Harry Potter get between a bully who is picking on a younger Slytherin. The second comes when someone says casually, “Harry Potter doesn’t have a happy home life. He comes from Muggle relatives he hates. Didn’t you know?”

These things surprise Severus, not just in themselves, but because Harry Potter is so open about them. He realizes other things - that Harry never invites admiration, that at times he almost seems not to like it. It makes him uncomfortable.

He starts acerbic, pointed questions about Perfect Potter, and though it’s funny watching short-tempered Harry Potter rise to the bait every time, Harry never really does anything cruel about it. Actually, Severus realizes, Harry Potter doesn’t mock him about anything, not even his obsession with good grades - once, Severus catches him scolding another Gryffindor who does.

He starts to consider the alarming possibility that Harry Potter might just be a refreshingly nice person. It’s a bizarre shift in mindset. Severus Snape is not against nice people, but he’s not used to them either.

He starts becoming so embarrassed around Harry it gets even more embarrassing, and Harry seems more puzzled than mocking at first. Finally, one day he says, “... Hey. Severus. You want to come to Hogsmeade with me and my friends?”

“I don’t need your pity!” Severus snaps before he can stop himself, and he calls Harry a rather bad word.

But though Harry frowns, he doesn’t really get angry. It’s almost like he understands.

“Why would I be pitying you?” he asks rhetorically, and he walks off. Not for the first time, Severus catches himself watching him as he walks away in that very certain light, and he curses inside his head, looks away and scowls, his face warm. Damn Potter for having a nice ass, and for being a forgiving person while he’s at it.

“We’re meeting in the entrance hall tomorrow at three!” Harry calls, faux casual, over his shoulder.

His Slytherin friends will make fun of him, but Severus feels a bizarre sense of gratefulness to Harry Potter. Harry Potter had the exact opposite reaction to childhood circumstances as Severus. They really shouldn’t be friends.

But maybe he could learn something. There’s always that.

 _Why not?_ he thinks to himself, not entirely understanding, and he goes anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> From here, the next part in the series will go somewhere totally different. I will start in a new timeline and a new set of circumstances. This is my personal, weird little side project, so these first three one-shots were me trying to get some things clear in my head.


End file.
